For the first year of my life I heard the sound of virtuoso Romanian violinist, Joan Harea practicing for 8 hours a day through the wall of the duplex in Ottawa. And then we moved to Winnipeg. I started begging to play as soon as I could put the words...

For the first year of my life I heard the sound of virtuoso Romanian violinist, Joan Harea practicing for 8 hours a day through the wall of the duplex in Ottawa. And then we moved to Winnipeg. I started begging to play as soon as I could put the words together. When I was 7 I held a violin for the first time and life made sense. When I was 8 I started my lifelong journey of learning the ancient fiddle tunes of the native people of the Canadian prairies. By 14 I was traveling the world playing this mysterious music to people across Canada, the US, and Europe. I reluctantly wrote my first song when I was 17 and recorded it with 3 others on an EP that would 2 years later lead me to opening for Paul McCartney, and Bon Jovi, and would also send me to New York. Music has been my life since day one, and my savior...it's not always an easy friend to have but it is always a true one. My bio has some impressive noted events on it that I will be forever grateful for, but I'm most thankful that my career for the most part has been organic evolution, allowing me to build meaningful relationships with the people who listen to my music, and allowing me to grow and evolve as an artist freely.

All I want to do in this life is connect with people. Music is my favourite way of connecting, and my favourite form of connection...second to hugging.

Sierra Noble - A Name to Remember by Soar MagazineSierra is a talented fiddler who dedicates many hours to sharing her skill with other youth in her community. Well known musicians like Tommy Knott, John Arcand and Gary Lapine are teaching her...

Review of "Possibilities" EP by Bruce LeperreOn her new six-track EP Possibilities, Noble sings with a heavenly sweet yet confident voice comparable to the likes of Norah Jones or Colbie Caillat. The songs are tasteful, somewhat understated...

Sierra Noble - A Name to Remember by Soar MagazineSierra is a talented fiddler who dedicates many hours to sharing her skill with other youth in her community.
Well known musicians like Tommy Knott, John Arcand and Gary Lapine are teaching her traditional fiddling tunes and she is teaching these tunes to youth at the Métis Resource Center. She also teaches at the Big Hart program run by the Winnipeg Region of the Manitoba Métis Federation. She has the required patience to teach and inspire music, note by note. It is her heartfelt mission to keep traditional fiddling music alive.
Sierra performs in public arenas and cultural events
across Manitoba. In 2003, she played at the Back to
Batoche days in Saskatchewan with the Lavallee
Tradition band and won the Junior Fiddling Champion contest. She was also the winner of the Souris Junior Fiddling Championship held last September and we are confident she will return this year to defend her title.
In December 2003, Sierra played at the Business
Development Bank of Canada’s Open House where we launched our Aboriginal youth magazine, SOAR. She was accompanied by famed guitarist Dave Lavallee from the Lavallee Tradition. Sierra was a welcome guest, providing a spirited addition to our event .
This year Sierra was again asked to perform at the
Festival du Voyageur in Winnipeg, one of Western
Canada’s biggest winter festivals. Her popularity
prompted the festival’s organizing committee to ask Sierra to host and perform four of her own shows. This was the first time she was offered her own show and the festival tent was always full. Sierra also won first place in the festival’s fiddling and jigging contests.
Since the age of 10, Sierra has been involved with
refugee families. Each year she holds a winter clothing and toy drive to benefit hundreds of families. One example of Sierra’s shining light is how she is able to inspire others to share some of their bounty. This past fall she encouraged local Hutterite communities to assist with her drive and they donated over 300 home- made cookies and 2,800 pounds of potatoes from their
harvest.
Sierra’s dedicated and caring attitude resulted in her being appointed Manitoba’s Youth Landmine
Ambassador. She is one of two individuals who will be traveling to Japan this summer for an international conference to ban landmines around the world. She has received several awards, including the prestigious Queen’s Golden Jubilee award for her humanitarian accomplishments. She also speaks and assists author Joe McLellan in storytelling sessions at various schools, universities and conferences. Sierra has just finished recording her first demo CD soon to be available for sale, and hopes to have a full recording of fiddle music available in the summer of 2004.

Review of "Possibilities" EP by Bruce LeperreOn her new six-track EP Possibilities, Noble sings with a heavenly sweet yet confident voice comparable to the likes of Norah Jones or Colbie Caillat. The songs are tasteful, somewhat understated pop, accented by Noble's string work, which adds even more warmth and dignity to her already polished, mature delivery…When it comes to a world class career in music for Sierra Noble, this EP confirms the possibilities are endless.

Heart of The Country - and interview with Sierra Noble by Canadian Interviws - Andrew GunnIn a spectacular moment during the Friday night Opening Ceremony of the Vancouver Olympic Games, Sierra Noble achieved one of her most ambitious goals. She showcased Métis fiddle music to a worldwide audience. Alongside other fiddlers from across the country, including André Brunet, April Verch, and Ashley MacIsaac, Noble played a portion of ‘Rhythms of the Fall’, a piece composed by veteran Alberta fiddler Calvin Vollrath to highlight the significance of the fiddle to Canadian music and culture. The performance turned out to be one of the unforgettable peaks of a most memorable national celebration.
The next day Noble was back in her hometown of Winnipeg to perform three concerts: first, a short set at the Forks that was part of the Olympic celebrations hosted by CTV; second, an opening night show at the Festival du Voyageur, the annual ten-day celebration of the origins of the French community in Manitoba; and third, a headlining set at Le Garage Café, a unique eatery and live music venue in the French Quarter of the city. Looking a bit weary, Noble managed an excellent late-night concert before a full house at the Café. All this activity occurred just a week shy of her twentieth birthday, no doubt explaining how she could endure such a potentially crushing schedule!
Noble sat down with Canadian Interviews the following afternoon to discuss her recent adventures. Foremost in her mind was her experience at the Olympics. “All of us were so in awe that we were a part of that,” she relates. “It was the biggest honour, playing for the world, and getting to bring Canadian fiddle music to the world.” Noble rushed back to Winnipeg afterwards mainly to maintain her tradition of taking part in the Festival, responding to the pull of the event that has nurtured her talent since she was eight years old. “Festival really was my base as a performer, every year looking forward to it and working up to it,” she explains. “I just love it. I can’t miss Festival. If I miss it, my heart feels empty.”
The appearance at the Olympics capped off a great run of success that Noble has enjoyed since the 2008 release of her debut EP Possibilities. The six-song collection helped map the vast musical terrain that she is able to cover, ranging from the pop sensibility of the first single, ‘Possibility’, to her frantic fiddle work on ‘The Noble Duel’, a duet with Ashley MacIsaac. The success of the album even helped Noble to secure a spot opening for Sir Paul McCartney when he played in Halifax in July 2009!
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In the following interview, Sierra Noble puts much of her background in view, including the moving account of how the fiddle first wound up in her hands. She explains the challenge of writing songs for her next album, and trying to decide which musical currents to navigate. Interestingly she states that Bruce Cockburn is the Canadian musician that she would most like to tour alongside, and she recounts the amusing story of how she ended up on stage with Cockburn to play one of his classic songs, ‘Pacing the Cage’. Here is an interview with a unique Canadian musician, one poised to turn grand possibilities into exciting realities.
CI: Let us start with the most exciting moment for you in the recent past, performing at the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics in Vancouver. What stands out to you about that moment?
SN: When I got up there, obviously you see all the people, and it was so amazing. When there’s a crowd that size, you don’t just see them, but you feel them so strongly. Before we went on, I was just sitting there, and this beautiful piece of music was playing before ours. It was really relaxing. I just kind of went through my life and was thinking of all my mentors, all the people in my life. Some of them aren’t here anymore, but I thought how much they would just be going nuts – ‘as if she’s going up there right now!’ All of us were so in awe that we were a part of that. It was the biggest honour, playing for the world, and getting to bring Canadian fiddle music to the world. It was so cool.
CI: How did it come about for you?
SN: You know what? It’s kind of a mystery for all of us! It certainly wasn’t ‘oh, my agent got me this gig’. There was a long process, a couple of years I think, of trying to define who was going to be a part of it, and how the ceremony was going to come to be, and what was going to be in it. It’s just amazing when you get that call: ‘you’re going to be in the Opening Ceremonies at the Winter Olympics’. ‘What? Okay, who do I have to pay?’
It was amazing. I’m just from Winnipeg, a fiddle player from Winnipeg. It was pretty special. When we finished the piece, there was actually a whole section that wasn’t broadcast because on some networks they didn’t go to commercial when CTV and other stations did. There was a whole reprise section for our part, and it rocked! We really rocked! It was fun. As soon as we finished that, we got the cue to go off stage, and I ripped out my in-ears so I could hear the crowd. It was unlike any feeling. I’ll never forget that. Amazing! I’ll be telling these stories until I’m ninety!
CI: Now a little local flavour: you’ve been busy this weekend with the Olympics, but also with the Festival du Voyageur here in Winnipeg. Explain a little about the significance for you of playing the Festival here in Winnipeg.
SN: The Festival du Voyageur has been in my life since I was eight years old. When I first started fiddling, there used to be a group around called the ‘Forty Fiddling Fanatics’, and I was in the ‘Forty Fiddling Fanatics’! That was my first time playing at Festival. I played there for a few years after that, and when I was twelve I got my first solo show at Festival. I got up there and said: “Now I’m going to play ‘Holland Jig’. Now I’m going to play ‘Lucky Trapper’s Reel’.” It was just a little kid playing a show, but it was so much fun! Festival really was my base as a performer, every year looking forward to it and working up to it. I just love it. I can’t miss Festival. If I miss it, my heart feels empty.
CI: It’s interesting that you mention that. Recently I did an interview with Nikki Yanofsky, and for her the Montréal Jazz Festival has sort of been like that since she was as young as you would have been when you started performing solo here. That local support: she has had it, and you have had it. At what point do you start thinking a little more about whether you’re going to be in Winnipeg for the long haul, or do you go to Toronto or New York and try something different?
SN: Well, I have definitely thought about other places where I would love to live, but right now, I mean, Winnipeg is an amazing place. There is so much music, so much support for the arts. We’re sitting here in Wolseley right now, where I’ve grown up my whole life, and it’s just wonderful. This neighbourhood alone has musicians and artists every three doors! It’s a wonderful place. I think people underestimate Winnipeg. And I love New York too. I think at some point in my life I’ll live there, and maybe Toronto, but Winnipeg is always home.
CI: The Possibilities EP has been out quite a while now. When it was released, looking back at it now, what were your expectations, and how well have those expectations been met over the course of the time that it’s been out?
SN: I had no expectations at all. When I started singing and songwriting, I was so terrified. It wasn’t really a choice. I was tricked into it! Chris Burke-Gaffney is a really good friend of mine, and a great songwriter and producer here in Winnipeg. He had been trying to get me to sing for five years, and I just kept saying ‘no Chris, I don’t sing’. He was like, ‘just come do some back-up vocals’. I said, ‘I don’t sing – call me when you need fiddle – I don’t sing!’ Then he said, ‘I know you sing. I know you do. You’ve got to do it.’ I told him, ‘No, I’m not a singer. I don’t want to be a singer’.
My first manager was Gilles Paquin. Chris and Gilles sort of teamed up on me. They were like, ‘well, Sierra, we really think that you might be a good songwriter. Everything that you write just has a certain thing about it. We think you might be able to write songs.’ Chris said, ‘just come over to the studio and we’ll try it out. We just want you to experience it.’ So Chris and I, and Keith Macpherson, went over and we started writing this song, and it was done in two hours. I thought ‘well, this is easy! We could get eight done in a day!’
It was fun. We really liked the song. This was ‘Possibility’. They said, ‘well, we have to demo it.’ I was looking at Keith. Keith was looking at me. Chris was looking at me. It was two against one! They shoved a mike in my face and made me sing it. I listened back to that recording recently, and I sounded so terrified – this really tight voice, so scared. Chris just nurtured me through it. We recorded it all the time. He just really, really helped me in finding my voice, and finding a voice that wasn’t trying to be like anybody else. That’s one thing that I don’t think I ever did. People told me that I reminded them of Norah Jones or Colbie Caillat or whatever, but Chris said ‘no, you have a unique voice – we’re not going to do that.’ He was really, really special in that. But I had no expectations at all; write a few nice songs, put out this EP, put some fiddle on it too, and see where it goes. It was more just a calling card to see if it would do anything. And it’s been a pretty amazing year! It’s been good.
CI: In your show last night, and on the album, you’re blending a pop sensibility together with the traditional fiddle music. How difficult has that been for you, trying to do both at the same time?
SN: It hasn’t been that difficult at all, actually. It’s just what I do. Fiddle is first for me. I’ll never put down the fiddle, and anyone who tries to get me to can go elsewhere! It’s funny. People say, ‘how do you add the fiddle into the pop-thing?’ It’s more, ‘how do I fit the pop-thing into the fiddle?’ That’s what it is for me. I don’t know. I’m going to find a way. It’s still kind of working itself out, but like you saw last night in the show, I just do both. Especially in Canada – people love fiddle music. That was clearly stated in the Opening Ceremonies! Canada is a fiddle nation! So I don’t think that too many people have complained about hearing some fiddle tunes and then a few pop songs. It’s worked so far.
CI: The videos, first for ‘Possibility’ and then ‘Try Anything’, have been quite successful, well played on CMT and the YouTube views are getting pretty good as well. In that process of putting images to music, and trying to sort that out – what was your input into that? What did you want to see as the end product?
SN: Well, the first video – I didn’t know anything about music videos at all. I knew what I liked, you know, but I had no idea of the process. First of all, we decided to do a music video, and I was given a few names of people to choose from, to check out their videos and their work. I checked out a couple of them, and then I went to Jeth Weinrich’s site and checked out his videos. There actually weren’t very many music videos on his site at the time. It was all short films and documentaries that he was working on. He just has an amazing way of taking anything and making it beautiful. There was this really epic scene that Jeth shot that anybody that knows it talks about – ‘do you know that stoplight in New York that you shot? It’s the most beautiful thing that I’ve ever seen!’ And it’s ridiculous, but he just has a way of seeing the world. He’s been through a lot in his life, and coming out of the things he has, he sees the world in a different way than a lot of people.
When I talked to him, I called him because when I saw his stuff, I was like, ‘he’s it! I know it! I don’t know why, but I just have a feeling that he’s going to get this song.’ On the surface, ‘Possibility’ is just a nice little love song, but there’s a lot more behind it. I think people feel it even if they don’t get it from the lyrics. I feel it when I play it, anyways. I don’t know if the audience does. There’s a lot behind that song, more than love and heartbreak and desire. I called him, and he said ‘I’m so glad that we’re doing this video. I had it on repeat for a whole day, and I just kept listening to it and listening to it. It’s just - I love it’. Jeth and I became really close friends throughout the process of getting this music video together. He really involved me every single step of the way, including the location, which was L.A. and just outside of, the beautiful deserts in California. We just really wanted to capture my self, and the depth of the song as well. He did an amazing job. It’s really beautiful, I think.
CI: How is the songwriting going for the next album, and when can the next one be expected?
SN: The songwriting is going good. It’s been kind of funny because I’ve felt like – well, I still feel like – I’m a little baby as far as songwriting. I’m learning different things every day, and writing all kinds of different songs. I’ve been growing as a person a lot in the last year, just with this new musical venture.
CI: And a lot of travelling …
SN: And turning twenty! A new decade! And a lot of travelling - this has been a pretty incredible year. There’s a lot of new emotion, I guess, going into the songs that I’m writing, and I’m finding my way with words and melodies that I wasn’t as confident with before. As soon as I think I’m finding a direction for an album, I’m like, ‘well, or I could do this …’. I think what it will come down to is when I finally set the studio dates. We’ll just look at the songs, and in that moment in time figure out what I want to say – and just put it out there!
CI: So there is no definitive timeline at this point …
SN: No, but I want to have it out this year, for sure. I can’t wait any longer.
CI: Most of the time I ask songwriters about the impact of the other arts on songwriting. Have you found recently that there are maybe novels or paintings, things that you are taking in that are impacting your songwriting, or do you mostly draw from your own personal experience, digest it, and write?
SN: Well, sometimes when I’m writing a song, or have written a song, I pick it apart. I’m always curious why the things that come out do come out, and why they come out the way they do. A few people, when we wrote ‘Possibility’, said ‘the metre is really weird in that song’. I had never really thought about it because I didn’t notice, and I realized that that was from the Métis fiddling. A lot of guitar players have so much trouble with Métis fiddling because it has really odd bars, and ‘Possibility’ is the same way – but I don’t notice it! I don’t notice it in the fiddle tunes either. It’s just a tune. It’s straight time to me!
When I think about those things, it’s just all these different influences throughout my life seep out in different places. Of course some of my favourite artists always make their way in there: Shawn Colvin and Norah Jones. Dance was a huge part of my life too. My sisters were amazing, amazing contemporary dancers, and I danced as well for a long time. Before music was my life, music and dance was my life. I think just the abstractness of modern dance is always inside me. When you said ‘pop sensibility’ – I guess I kind of always had that, but always tried to make it abstract and unique in some way, in an accessible way.
CI: That’s interesting because, as you said earlier about ‘Possibility’, even if the lyrics don’t immediately connect with people, there’s something in the metre of the song that is distinctive. It’s nice that you’re able to incorporate that part of your earlier musical career as part of the new direction. Is that just instinctive for you?
SN: I think if I thought about it too much it wouldn’t come out right! It just comes out.
CI: What was the initial trigger that got the fiddle in your hands when you were a kid? Was it a family influence?
SN: It’s an interesting story. I love it when my Mom tells it because it’s really her story. Before I was born, my family lived in Ottawa. I was born in Ottawa. When she was pregnant with me, my Dad was leaving at the time. It was a really stressful time for her, of course, you know – she has two young kids, and pregnant. She was carrying a lot of stress, and she was really worried about carrying me, being so stressed. We lived in a duplex. On the other side, the other side of the house, there was a virtuoso violinist from Romania. He [Ioan Horea] played the Gypsy style of violin.
My Mom said that for about half an hour a day she would sit on the couch that was right on the dividing wall, and she would just sit there and listen to Ioan play. He practised for eight hours a day. She would sit there and try to forget everything and just listen to him play. She said that whenever she did that I would just completely relax inside of her. It was just – I mean, that’s cool enough.
When I was born, it was Ioan, his wife, and the grandmother – his mother – that lived there. They had kids as well. His Mom would come over and take me over to their house for a while to let my Mom take care of my sisters, go have a shower, whatever. She would sit there, and Ioan would play for me. That was every day for about the first six months to a year of my life.
Then we moved away. My sisters – at I think ten and twelve years old – got accepted to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet Professional Program. So we moved to Winnipeg, you know, with nothing. They wanted them to just come and live in residence, but my Mom was like, ‘no, I’m not going to ship my daughters off.’ She just up and moved to Winnipeg – didn’t know anybody here, lived in Ontario her whole life – so entering the world of flatness was shocking enough!
But I never heard violin ever again. There was the classical music of course at the ballet, and I always picked out the violin. Since I could talk, I always, always pointed it out. I begged my Mom to let me play violin for four years, since I was three. We didn’t have the money. It’s not a very cheap instrument to buy, and lessons aren’t cheap. It’s just all-around a really expensive thing, and money that we barely had just to eat. We lived on Arlington before we moved to Lenore. Our next-door neighbour was the principal bassoonist in the Winnipeg Symphony. My Mom and him got to know each other. He leaned over the fence one day and said, ‘Sherry, does Sierra have any interest in music?’ She was like, ‘are you kidding me? She’s been begging me for years!’ He knew, obviously, all the violinists in the Symphony, and knew a few of them that taught that he thought would be really good. He gave her their numbers. She called them. There was one woman named Elizabeth Lupton-Ennz. She said, ‘bring Sierra over at lunchtime, I would love to meet her, and we’ll see how it goes’. And she was the best private violin teacher in the city.
We went over, checked me out of school, and we went over to Liz’s house. I remember this moment so vividly: when she first put a violin in my hand, and it just felt right! I know now from teaching fiddle how awkward a fiddle is in kids’ hands. They are just in the most awkward position with this piece of wood shoved in their neck, and it hurts, and they don’t know what to do with it. But I don’t remember ever feeling that. Liz said, ‘I know she needs to play’. She taught me for next to nothing. She lent me a violin for the first year and a half so that we could get the money together. She took maybe five bucks from my Mom every once in a while. She just knew that I wanted to play. She was a total angel.
CI: It seems safe to say that the kindness of neighbours played a big part …
SN: Oh yes, friendly Manitoba!
CI: Aside from the classical influence, what music were you listening to as a kid? What was influential for you?
SN: It’s kind of funny. I listened to all different kinds of music because I pretty much had to listen to whatever my sisters were listening to. I had no control being the baby of the family. They’re ten years older than me. There was a lot of Erykah Badu, Jamiroquai, and my oldest sister was one of the top drum and bass DJs in the country for a long time. So there was a lot of that bopping through the house …
I listened to a lot of fiddle music, of course, all the time. I started with classical when I was seven and then I started playing fiddle music when I was eight. That was just instantly my passion as soon as I heard it, Métis fiddle. There were piles and piles of fiddle records that I always listened to, especially when I got my first record player. That was amazing! Getting the real old fiddle records from the greats from Canada.
CI: When I was a kid, it was Pearl Jam, Nirvana - pretty easy records to find! In your case, were those records fairly easy to discover?
SN: Surprisingly, it is. There is a lot of fiddle music kicking around. I won’t say that that was all I listened to. When I was nine and ten years old, it was Britney Spears, it was ’N Sync and Backstreet Boys and Aqua and Prozac. So I was a pretty typical kid! But fiddle music was really pretty easy to find. If you are in the fiddle world, you know where to get it, especially at all the fiddle contests. The senior champion fiddlers would have their CDs there. You would grab them whenever you could and learn all the tunes on them. It was a pretty amazing childhood travelling around everywhere. My Mom would drive to fiddle contests all over the province, all over the Prairies. It was a whole little secret world in Canada – fiddling!
CI: When you have that sort of immediate feeling for something, and obviously the talent and desire to match, what impact did that have on school?
SN: A huge impact! I missed a lot of school. It started to be an issue around grade five, but I wasn’t touring then. Before music I missed a lot of school because of my humanitarian work. I did a lot of work with the landmine issue. I went to do a lot of school presentations, and did a lot of travelling. I would be at other schools, but not at my own.
CI: What group were you involved with in that? How did you get involved in that as a ten or eleven-year-old?
SN: When I was ten years old, my Mom and I were driving down Broadway. This was 2000, when the War Child conference was here in Winnipeg. We were travelling down Broadway and we saw these huge white tents, and were kind of curious as to what they were. We knew that the War Child conference was going on but didn’t really know a lot about it. We went into this one tent and there were displays and booths for all different kinds of things. Right inside the door was this big glass case. There was grass in it, and this big wooden stake and this thing attached to it. I went up to it and started reading about it. It was a landmine, a tripwire landmine.
Around this glass case, they had ‘did-you-know …’, and you could flip it open and read these shocking facts, you know, ‘every twenty-two minutes somewhere in the world someone is maimed or killed by a landmine’; next one: ‘it only takes the weight of a three-year-old child to set off a landmine’. It was going around this display, and it was this bombarding of this thing that I had never known of in the world. At ten years old, I wasn’t really into war movies or anything. I had no idea what a landmine was and it just all of a sudden crashes into my world. What is this? Why are these here? Why are they in the world?
My Mom said that she was watching me go around this table, just staying back, trying to figure out what was going to happen next. It was the Youth Mine Action Ambassador Program, and the Manitoba Youth Ambassador came up. His name was Darryl Toews. He started telling me about landmines. He was wearing a de-mining suit, and he started telling me about that. I said ‘why? I just don’t get it …’. He said, ‘I know. It’s a really, really terrible thing.’ And he looked at me and he said, ‘so what are you going to do about it?’ I said, ‘Uh, nothing – I’m ten!’ He looked at me and said ‘no, you need to know that you can do more than anybody, any adult’. Now it kind of seems like a cliché, you know, ‘youth have the power, youth have the voice’, but at that time, it was almost a bit of an uprising – that War Child conference just inspired so many people in the city and in the country to take action. When he told me that, I really took it to heart. He gave me his card and said ‘come see us at the Red Cross on Friday. We want to talk to you.’ I guess he just saw something in me, and that I wasn’t just a curious kid wondering what the big metal thing that explodes is. It really deeply affected me. I went over there and they taught me all about landmines. It was really impacting. I started going with them to elementary schools, high schools, and universities, helping them with their presentations. Then they started getting me to do presentations on my own. I became really involved in a lot of the youth movements for the global ban on landmines. It was through the Red Cross and YMAAP, the Youth Mine Action Ambassador Program.
It just became really a personal endeavour. I started working directly with war-affected refugees here in Winnipeg, and had an annual winter clothing and toy drive. There are just so many things that happen behind the scenes that people don’t know. These people are coming from places that would never imagine the weather that we have here, and they come with what they have on their backs – a T-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops. I literally saw kids walking from their houses three blocks away to the Centre that I volunteered at in minus-forty-five. The night we saw that, my Mom and I drove home and we were crying. ‘Why is this happening? They’re going to die.’ That’s when we started the winter clothing and toy drive. It started as the clothing drive, just to get as much winter clothing as possible. And then – you know how when you’re a kid, you always have a teddy bear, and that thought of these kids probably not even having that, just having something comforting to let it all out into and hug - we started getting toys together. It started out as just the immediate community around the Centre, but it expanded to hundreds of families in the city. Eventually the cycle of hand-me-downs started, so the need was lessened. That was a really amazing thing to see. You work really, really hard, and eventually the need is less and less and less.
So that started when I was ten, and I still try to do as much as I can. With my schedule, it’s not as easy. Music wasn’t as heavily a part of my life at that point, but I missed a lot of school to go to other schools and talk to kids. Well, they weren’t always kids – I went to high schools when I was ten, talking to these eighteen-year-old jocks, and they were like, ‘who’s this kid?’ They would come up to me and say ‘we feel like such losers. You’re out doing this, and we’re doing nothing …’. But they didn’t just leave it at that. They would actually get involved. It was amazing.
CI: That might explain a bit of your comfort on stage. If you were ten and talking to seventeen and eighteen year-olds, that is actually probably more intimidating than some big shows ten years later …
SN: In front of sixty thousand people! Yeah, at the time, it totally was!
CI: Back to music for a moment. Your songwriting and what you have in mind for the next album is still up in the air. What does the rest of this year look like for you? What are you going to be doing?
SN: To be honest, it’s a little bit up in the air right now. There have been some really awesome opportunities coming up. The Olympics is just an opportunity that none of us involved could have ever foreseen. We don’t really know what’s going to happen out of that. I’m just really focussing on writing and getting the new record out, and just going full steam ahead from there. I’m pretty ready-to-go. I really want to get out there and do what I love.
CI: Is there any Canadian musician right now that you would just love to get on a tour alongside?
SN: For a long time I’ve wanted to do a tour with Bruce Cockburn. I know him a bit. He’s an amazing guy. I’ve told him a couple of times, ‘Bruce, we’ve got to do a tour together’. And he was like, ‘yeah, yeah, that would be fun’. So I’ll try to make that happen! It would be fantastic. And Hawksley Workman! He’s one of my favourite Canadian artists, and just the greatest guy.
CI: Tell me about playing ‘Pacing the Cage’ with Bruce Cockburn.
SN: Well, I’ve known Bruce for a little while. Every time I’m in Ottawa, or the area, I call him up and see if he’s in town. He drove in from where he lives just outside Ottawa to have lunch with me and my Mom, and just kind of hung out. It was really, really nice. He’s just a great guy to sit with and talk with. He’s super-funny too.
I had this show in Toronto called ‘Larger Than Life’. It was at the Revival. The show was coming up, and I realized that I didn’t have a band. I was calling all my favourite guys in Toronto. I had left messages for them and figured they would hopefully come through. But I started thinking about my dream band, the perfect band. Well, Hawksley on drums, Bruce on guitar … and so I woke up one morning and I was thinking about that. I picked up my phone and I called Bruce and left a message and asked him if he would play guitar for me!
CI: You’re not shy …
SN: I went downstairs and I told my Mom what I just did. She said, ‘you did what?’ I said, ‘yeah, I think I just asked Bruce Cockburn to play guitar for me next week’. He called me back. He was like, ‘yeah, I’m going to be in Toronto that night – I’d love to play a few songs with you.’ I thought, ‘this guy’s just the coolest!’
What ended up happening was that I got my band in Toronto together. It was not Hawksley and Bruce, but the best Toronto guys, good friends of mine. We set up another part of the show for Bruce and me to do a few songs together. We did ‘Possibility’, and then we did ‘Pacing the Cage’. It was so amazing.
CI: Did you sing ‘Pacing the Cage’?
SN: Well, I sang a bit of harmony, but I left it to him, for sure! It was just him on vocals and guitar, and me on fiddle. It was kind of like the whole universe disappeared. It was just me and Bruce! We had so much fun. It’s kind of hard to describe musical experiences like that. It was amazing. We also played ‘Stolen Land’. It’s a song about native rights. It was an Aboriginal show. That was amazing. It was great. We just had a wonderful few songs on stage and just hung out the rest of the night until three in the morning in a grubby place on College Street. It was fun! Yeah, I really want to play with him again. A tour would be really cool! With people like him, music just pours out, and straight from the heart. Through his whole life, that’s where his music has come from. To be on the same stage and experience that, and as a person who does the same thing – well, I think most people do, playing straight from the heart – but especially songs that are so powerful, as powerful as his, it changes things forever a little bit, experiencing that amount of intensity, that connectedness to the universe for a few moments.
Date of Interview: 02/14/2010

Review of "Possibilities" EP by John Kendle (Uptown Magazine, Winnipeg)On her new six-track EP Possibilities, Noble sings with a heavenly sweet yet confident voice comparable to the likes of Norah Jones or Colbie Caillat. The songs are tasteful, somewhat understated pop, accented by Noble's string work, which adds even more warmth and dignity to her already polished, mature delivery…When it comes to a world class career in music for Sierra Noble, this EP confirms the possibilities are endless.

Arts & Culture Feature by Gloss MagazineSierra Noble is wise beyond her years. The petite fiddle/violin virtuoso and folk singer has toured the world, mesmerizing audiences with the ease at which her delicate fingers move swiftly across the strings and her pure yet rich and soulful vocals.
Noble began studying fiddle music in the context of her Metis musical roots in her childhood, but her repertoire has quickly expanded to bluegrass, Cajun, jazz, and pop. With instrumental albums, Fiddlin’ Fingers and Spirit of the Strings, already under her belt, Sierra Noble is currently working on a vocal demo, leading with “Possibility,” a single co-written by Noble and Winnipeg producer Chris Burke-Gaffney and singer-songwriter Keith Macpherson. The song is a delicate balance of acoustic guitar plucking and Noble’s soft, husky voice over top. Another single, “It Hurts,” showcases Noble’s vocals in a bluesy ballad that is very reminiscent to Norah Jones’ vocals on “Come Away with Me.”
For fans of young, bluesy folk singing and fiddling, check out Noble when she performs as a part of the Canadian Pacific’s Olympic Spirit Train tour, promoting the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. For a complete list of tour dates, check out Sierra Noble’s website at www.sierranoble.ca.

Calgary Sun by DARRYL STERDANShe's a talented fiddler who focuses on the traditional Metis style, but also can handle Cajun, Celtic, Country and other styles with ease. And she uses her gift to help fundraise for humanitarian causes. In other words, she's the kind of precocious, totally together kid you'd normally love to hate. Once you hear her work her magic on this debut disc of instrumental gems, though, we expect you'll change your mind.

10 Questions with local singer-songwriter Sierra Noble by Winnipeg Women Magazine
Your favourite spot to listen to music?
Absolutely anywhere. Since I was very young I have always listened to music of all kinds…and really, ALL kinds. German electro-pop, Norwegian fiddle, jazz, classical, Czech rock bands, you name it. And with an iPod and a good set of headphones you can listen to anything anywhere. As far as live music, it’s the same—wherever I am, if I have some time off, I will ask where some good live music is and I’m off!
Your favourite spot to play/sing?
Is “on stage in front of a good audience” too general? I really just love to and live for being on stage. I love creating music and songwriting, and being in the studio. But when it comes down to it, I wouldn’t be a very happy person if I wasn’t able to get up on stage and create a fun, emotion-filled, and intimate experience with an audience. I love trying to take my audiences some kind of journey, whether it’s cultural, emotional, spiritual or just fun, I want them to go away feeling like they know me a bit and like they’ve experienced something special.
The best thing about living in Winnipeg?
The people. Winnipeggers are like no other in the world. Kind, humble and open-minded, usually coupled with a wickedly funny sarcastic sense of humour. Being an artist, Winnipeg was an incredible place to grow up and is still a great place to live in. There is a wonderful grass roots support and respect for artists of all kinds here—dancers, actors, visual artists, musicians…there is a place and a love for us all.
Who or what most inspires you?
I have had incredible people as inspirations throughout my life as a musician. My late best friend Oliver Schroer was a true gem in not only in Canadian music but in the world, with his music having the ability to ignore any one genre except iTunes’ “uncategorizable,” and take people on a journey to places of their minds and spirits that this crazy and fast paced world often doesn’t allow. Bruce Cockburn, who I am blessed to call a friend of mine, was an inspiration since my mom first introduced me to his music. Not only as the incredible musician that he is, but as the possibly even more incredibly person and humanitarian that he is. There is a list that could go on and on, and people who I would love to pay tribute to as inspirations to me, but I think that it’s pretty safe to say that I’m inspired everyday by people that I meet, and their stories. If you take the time to listen, everyone has a story that will change or inspire your life in some way.
What was it like to open for Sir Paul McCartney?
It was an experience unlike any other. There was a lot of screaming when I got the call, and a lot of pacing in my hotel room the morning of the show. I think it was overwhelming enough just to know that Paul McCartney had listened to my music, but to be given that chance of a lifetime was absolutely unbelievable. To feel the energy in that crowd was amazing, and admittedly completely addicting.
Who would you love to collaborate with?
I would love it if one day Bruce Cockburn and I could write and record an album together. I would also love to write with Shawn Colvin, John Hiatt, and Emmy-Lou Harris, who are a few of my all-time favourite singer songwriters. And this may come as a surprise, but I’ve always wanted to record a drum and bass inspired album. Now I know that needs some explaining (ha ha). About three straight years of my childhood, my sister Terra (DJ Terra) was one of Canada’s top D&B spin DJs, so everyday that’s all I heard pumping through the house.
You do a lot of humanitarian work – what cause is closest to your heart?
Until everyone on the planet, especially women and children, has enough food to eat, and are healthy, safe, and educated, I will never be able to say that one cause is closer to my heart than another. There are causes that I have put a lot of energy into in my life, such as the landmine issue, war affected children, inner city youth, the health and state of northern aboriginal communities, but this is only a start. It has been proven to me over and over again throughout my life that the power of one, and the power of the voice of children and youth, can and do change minds, lives, and the world. “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”
How will you be spending your holidays?
With family, like always. We used to gather at home in Winnipeg, but since both of my sisters now live in Toronto, and one has started a beautiful family of her own, we now gather around her and the little ones. Home is where the heart is as they say, and our hearts are with family. This year our hearts reside in Toronto.
Do you have any holiday traditions?
One that I always loved growing up was the Advent time. We had a hand-made Nativity table, and every morning for the whole month of December I would get to unwrap another piece of the Nativity scene. I would rush down every morning to see what would be there. It was modeled after very old traditions that honoured both the earth and the Creator. Each week a different part of our Earth was honoured. We started the minerals the first week, the plants the second week, and then the animals and birds, and lastly the people.
What’s next for you?
Well, that’s a really exciting question to me right now. I’ve been doing a lot of songwriting this year, which has been so new and inspiring to me. My journey this year into becoming a singer-songwriter has been amazing and really motivating, has introduced me to some incredible people, and opened some huge doors for me. I’m planning the recording and release of a new full-length album for 2010, and dreaming of a great tour to go along with it. I guess all I can say is, as much hard work as it is, I feel like I’m truly living my dream, and I hope it doesn’t stop anytime soon!

SIERRA NOBLE WINS VINA DEL MAR SONG COMPETITION by Canadian singer-songwriter, Sierra Noble just arrived home from Chile after taking part in the famed "Viña Del Mar International Song Competition"; the largest music festival in all of Latin America, viewed by over 100 Million people in the Spanish speaking population around the world. Her song “Try Anything”, co-written with Chris Burke-Gaffney and Christopher Ward was selected out of over a thousand submissions to be one of the six contestants in the 52nd Annual Festival.
Competing against songs and singers from the USA, Panama, Ukraine, Chile, and Peru, Sierra left with the top prize, the famed “Gaviotas” trophies for both “Best Song” and “Best Performance” of the Festival‘s International Competition Category.
Winnipeggers, and Canadians have long known Sierra Noble’s talents and accomplishments and now the world is starting to take notice. She began as a young fiddle sensation and in 2008 added singer/songwriter to her title. She accompanied Canada’s Aboriginal veterans, to play for them as they revisited the battlefields of France leading her to her playing her original composition “The Warriors Lament” atop the monument in Vimy Ridge, France for the historic battles 90thAnniversary in 2007.
She has also opened concerts for Sir Paul McCartney, Bon Jovi and appeared in the opening of the 2010 Olympics as one of Canada’s “Hero Fiddlers” along side the likes of friend, Ashley MacIsaac.
When asked about her recent victory in Viña Del Mar Sierra stated;
It was unbelievable enough that our song got chosen out of thousands to be in the top 6 competitors...as songwriters, we take moments in time and bare pieces of our hearts and put them straight into the songs we write...to have that piece of your heart recognized in such a huge way like winning this competition is honestly one of the biggest honours a writer could ever receive. Beyond the competition, because the winner is decided by only 9 (albeit very valid) judges, it was the response from the people of Chile and of Latin America to my music that meant even more to me. My music is for "the people". Without the everyday people, without music lovers around the world supporting me, I wouldn't be able to do what I do every day...I would just be sitting in my room writing songs playing for myself and my friends.
Having my music recognized and loved and knowing that it truly touches peoples hearts...that is why I do what I do...winning awards is just a beautiful, heart warming, and encouraging bonus.
I was so overwhelmed by the whole week that after I won, I couldn't stop crying for literally hours...sobbing. An overflow of pure emotion.
I can't wait to get back to Chile, and go back for years to come...the people of Chile are so amazing...they welcomed me, a girl from Winnipeg that plays the fiddle with open arms and made me feel completely at home. Te Amo Viña! Te Amo Chile! And a HUGE thank you to the host tv station, ChileVision for truly believing in me!